Jan 30, 2017

It appears we are watching a revolution of sorts in our country, and for the first time in my lifetime, the Left appears to be back on its heels a bit. No one knows how the Trump era will play out, but for now, the Right is punching back at the Left.

I want to attempt in this week’s “Israel Watch” to explain how those on the Left operate in the culture. Keep in mind that while I don’t write exclusively about Israel this week, we must pay attention to how the next-generation (Millennials—18-to-35-year-olds) will view the Jewish state…unless they can be convinced of the justness of Zionism. In short, while older generations seem to have gotten a reprieve by dodging the bullet of a Hillary Clinton presidency, our children and grandchildren might face a future in the Great Delusion.

I noted with interest this week that Israel has decided yet again to be a moral force in this world. From Israel Hayom:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Wednesday approved a framework to enable some 100 Syrian children orphaned by the civil war in their country to find homes in Israel.

“According to Channel 10 News, foster families in the Arab sector would care for the children, and some may be placed in Arab-Israeli boarding schools.

“Once safe in Israel, authorities would make efforts to bring the children’s immediate families to Israel as well.

“During the course of the bloody civil war in Syria, which began in 2011, Israeli hospitals have often cared for wounded refugees.

“In a meeting with foreign journalists in December, Netanyahu revealed that he had instructed the Foreign Ministry to explore ways in which Israel can increase the medical assistance offered to Syrian civilian casualties and refugees fleeing Aleppo.”

Now, you won’t find the so-called “Progressive” Christians giving Israel any credit whatsoever for this. They will continue to be silent about positive news out of Israel and they will instead focus on fake news and bias to demonize the Jewish state. Think Lynne Hybels and her contention that Israel rations Palestinians’ water.

How do these people come to their conclusions? Why do they believe what they believe? I ran across a fascinating quote from the actor Matthew Modine:

“[On why he turned down Top Gun] As a kid, I was always taught the Russians were the bad guys, the Chinese would destroy the world… Then early in my career I was at the Berlin film festival and a guy took me to East Berlin. I saw a monument to Russian soldiers who died fighting Germany.

“The fact Russia was our ally in World War II was not part of my basic education. I met Russian soldiers and they were no different to my brothers who’d served in Vietnam. We shared cigarettes, they gave me pins from their uniforms. When I got home, the Top Gun script was waiting for me and I knew I just couldn’t perpetuate the lie.”

It’s difficult to know where to start with this. The gullibility of Hollywood’s actors is difficult to process. Matthew Modine decided that what he knew about the Cold War was bogus because he shared some smokes with Soviet soldiers?

Get a clue. How do you think Modine was able to travel to East Berlin? His lack of historical understanding is epic. He seems to think that the German people were lauding the Soviet troops and so erected a monument to them. Knock, knock, hello. Did he understand (or does he even now?) that East Berlin was then Soviet territory? Did the monument mention that Soviet troops raped and murdered millions of German citizens in Berlin in 1945?

I hope you see the vapid nature of Modine’s worldview, in his understanding of the Communists who sealed half of Europe behind an Iron Curtain for 45 years.

Point being, if you listen to young people on the Left today, you begin to understand how warped their worldviews are, and it’s easy to see why they believe that Israel is, as Bob Dylan sang, “The Neighborhood Bully” in the Middle East.

It is a complete inversion of the truth.

Now, you also need to understand a real danger point: the co-opting of the Evangelical Community in America by the Left. It is a furious agenda that most are unaware of, but should be monitoring.

In 2017, and for some time, the best-known evangelical leaders are silent in the pulpits when it comes to really telling people what’s going on, including the truth about Israel. These “leaders” are concerned only with maintaining their brands, their wealth, and their acceptance by the secular world. They are also fearful of losing their tax-exempt status, perhaps the most dangerous tool employed by the government. I believe these men are cowards. They are certainly standing-down while our young people are set upon by the packs of wolves leading the Left.

(When I refer to the “Left,” I am talking of course of people whose anti-biblical worldview supports abortion, “LGBT” rights, and totalitarianism around the globe, among other things.)

Let’s look at another example. Right now, the most famous evangelical leaders are pushing hard the idea that we need to open our arms wide to Middle East refugees.

It should be obvious to all that warnings by former CIA Director John Brennan and current FBI Director James Comey should be heeded: ISIS and other terror groups have thoroughly infiltrated “refugee” communities and only await the green-light to flood America. This is a reality, not a theory.

Look at Europe; Germany is gone. Great Britain might be gone, referred to as “Londonistan” by writers like Melanie Phillips. Do we want this in America? I don’t.

Evangelical change-agents like Ed Stetzer, Jen Hatmaker, and several Southern Baptists do however approve of large numbers of refugees coming ashore in America!

Recently Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, said: “The church must not buy into the fearful rhetoric about refugees.” This statement was tweeted by Matthew Soerens (U.S. director of Church Mobilization for World Relief), and “liked” by no less than Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Stetzer is stoking the fires as well, trying to intimidate evangelicals to stand down and in fact advocate for bringing in large numbers of refugees.

Stetzer tweeted recently: “Too much of President Trump’s policy is driven by unfounded fear of refugees.”

Interestingly, Stetzer has received significant pushback on Twitter from evangelicals who do understand the dangers of allowing refugees into the U.S.

Hatmaker, a left-wing “evangelical,” tweeted: “Thank you @edstetzer. Refugees are among the most vulnerable, exploited people on earth.”

Hatmaker, of course, has become well known for her embrace of left-wing causes, including “LGBT” rights.

This is who mainstream evangelical leaders pal around with.

By the way, the reality is, the Left’s agenda for bringing in refugees is profoundly dangerous to America.

As Daniel Greenfield wrote in Frontpage:

“Most Islamic terrorists that the FBI has been dealing with had no specific terror plans at the time that they entered this country. Some Islamic terrorists, like the Tsarnaev perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, came here as children. Others, like Omar Mateen, the Pulse shooter, and Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood killer, contrived to be born in this country to foreign parents.

“Immigration screening has to do more than just ask terrorists to check a box if they plan to fly planes into our skyscrapers. We must identify visitors and immigrants who are at a high risk of becoming terrorists in the first or second generation. The only way to do this is with a holistic strategy that examines the worldview of new immigrants and the Islamic communities they intend to be part of.”

Unlike Stetzer (who comically answered one critic on Twitter that he’s written a book on Islam, due out next year! Pass), who just wants us to “trust us” on flooding the country with immigrants from the ME, Greenfield relies on hard data:

“For example, attendees at the infamous Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia included Nidal Hasan, its former Imam was Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, and a number of key figures associated with the mosque were linked to Islamic terrorism. Any Muslim immigrants planning to attend the mosque could be considered at high risk for engaging in terrorism regardless of their stated views.

“Our current screening methods are laughably crude.”

Who do you believe? Ed Stetzer or researchers like Greenfield? I frankly wouldn’t trust Stetzer to get me a glass of water.

There are many, many other examples of leftist thought within Evangelicalism.

This week, I noticed a guest post on the blog site of Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Rainer is Stetzer’s former boss, and he also usually has a bone to pick with “trolls” and other critics of the leftward drift of evangelical leaders.

On Rainer’s blog, Jonathan Howe published his “Influencer’s List,” a regular compilation of change agents (my word) within evangelicalism. Notice just one of the people listed, Lore Wilbert. Howe lists describes her thusly: “Lore Wilbert (@lorewilbert) – Writer, Washington, DC — Lore writes for several online outlets and blogs at sayable.net”

At sayable.net, you can read the following:

“I feel less like a proud American than I ever have. But there, nestled amidst the sadness in my broken heart, there is a quiet and vibrant confidence: I cannot find a home in all of this, any of it, but I have a home in Him and what life in Him stands for: all of life in Him for all of life on earth.”

She also writes:

“I feel less like a proud American than I ever have.”

Here she apes the infamous view of Michelle Obama.

Please go to sayable.net and read her blog post, “Our Divided States.” If you can get through the smarmy and turgid writing, you’ll see that Wilbert is talking about a so-called “pro-all-life” sermon she heard. This refers to a movement among progressives who are attaching all sorts of other issues to the pro-life movement, including their advocacy for the abolition of capital punishment.

Here I’m giving you my opinion: I believe this is 100 percent an effort to push a left-wing social justice agenda, and they give lip service to abortion, so that they can push through abolishing capital punishment, bringing in millions of refugees, etc.

Do you see how these links and networks…work? Lore Wilbert is promoted by Jonathan Howe, who is promoted by SBC big Thom Rainer.

This is how left-wing thought has infiltrated Evangelicalism. You have no idea how deep and wide it is, I promise you.

Evangelical leaders are almost wholesale giving cover and platforms to left-wing “thought leaders.” You can see it in their conferences, their blogs, their resources offered.

It is also perhaps helpful to note that even the term “evangelical” has been stretched and changed. This is what totalitarians do: infiltrate and change word meanings, concepts, and then co-opt group thought. It is what Rick Warren has done through his Purpose-Driven stuff, and on a larger scale, what the Soviets did in large segments of American society beginning in the 1920’s. Their agents infiltrated religious, political, entertainment, and media circles.

The very same concept has been applied to American Evangelicalism.

I hope this gives you some picture into how attitudes are changing regarding Israel. What is today solid support for the Jewish state in America will tomorrow be a full-on embrace of the PLO and the worst enemies of Israel. We have already seen this in the views of Jimmy Carter. He was, however, in the minority. In another 25 years, his views will be mainstream.

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Jim Fletcher is a writer, researcher, speaker and director of Prophecy Matters (prophecymatters.com). He is also a member of the executive committee of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), and author of It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). He writes online for WorldNetDaily; Beliefnet; American Family Association; the Jerusalem Post; and Rapture Ready.